Billions To Be Spent On Bullshit – The Sorry Tale Of Universal Credit

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day so Iain Duncan Smith accusing Liam Byrne of being pathetic in Parliament yesterday should not be seen as a sign that the bungling Work and Pensions Secretary has finally developed some judgement.

IDS was being questioned yet again about Universal Credit, the ongoing farcical attempt to revolutionise the benefits system. But what is perhaps most astonishing is that everyone from the insipid Labour Party to The Guardian is queuing up to say what a wonderful idea Universal Credit is in theory, if only it weren’t being introduced by such a fucking idiot.

Far too many on the so-called left have accepted the basic premises of Universal Credit, and are reduced to arguing over the IT or when it will finally be introduced. The endless stream of propaganda about the broken benefits system has done its job and now this Government is about to smash it to smithereens whilst the latte slurpers in the liberal press cheer them on. And be under no illusions, Universal Credit is a shit idea, based on the flimsiest of assumptions and which is likely to lead to chaos in the lives of the poorest.

All of the grand claims about Universal Credit are bogus, not least the persistent lie that these reforms will make work pay. This is a problem that Working Tax Credits were introduced to address ten years ago. Whilst the situation is far from perfect, almost everyone, especially those with children is now better off in full time work than on benefits.

Tinkering with the rate at which benefits are withdrawn – which is all these reforms actually do – will now mean some working families may be slightly better off under the new regime, but many others will be worse off. IDS is robbing Peter to pay Paul, seemingly at random, with many low income families set to find themselves better off by reducing their working hours under the new system.

The other big lie is that Universal Credit will simplify the benefit system and cut down on fraud, but neither of these claims stand up to close inspection. Just because you’ve changed something’s name doesn’t mean you’ve simplified it. For most claimants very little is set to change in how benefits are administered, except that instead of being able to talk to a human being about their claim, the new system will be digital by default. And the removal of this human element from the system means Universal Credit is likely to end up riddled with fraud.

For those on out of work sickness or disability benefits the Atos assessment regime will still exist and all that is likely to change is the form people are required to fill in. Housing Benefit is being renamed the Housing Element of Universal Credit, but will still function much the same in practice – except it is now to be controlled by the DWP instead of local authorities, meanings years of local housing market knowledge and expertise is being thrown away.

For those on mainstream unemployment benefits, barely anything at all will change. Claimants will not receive any more, or less money than they do now. Fortnightly signing will still be required. The new Claimant Commitments are just more of the same workfare and sanctions shit that all those out of work have become used to – although a demand that claimants prove how they are looking for work for 35 hours a week or face benefit sanctions is likely to result in a chaotic and confused mess on the frontline in Jobcentres. More people will have benefits stopped, sanctioned or disallowed, but this isn’t a simplification – particularly as it will mire unprecedented numbers of people in the murky world of appeals, benefit tribunals and hardship or discretionary payment applications.

Meanwhile those on Tax Credits will now be expected to provide information monthly instead of annually, and if they are working as PAYE employees will be dependent on their boss providing the correct earnings information to the DWP at the end of every month. Those who are self-employed will face staggeringly complex rules, with Dragon’s Den style assessments being planned to make sure their self-employment is viable. The benefits system will be as complicated as ever, and is merely being rebranded, renamed and probably there’ll be some different colour forms to fill in or something.

The other big lie about UC is that 300,000 ‘workless’ families will enter the workforce saving the tax payer around £7 billion a year. This is just pie in the sky. There is no evidence this will happen and no explanation of where all these new jobs will come from. Just because single parents will now be expected to endlessly look for a job that fits in with school hours doesn’t mean thousands of jobs like that will become available. There is no shortage of single parents who want work right now, changing the name of the benefit they get isn’t going to magic them into employment.

Forcing hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people to endlessly look for work will not cure them of the condition that is stopping them working – and neither will it stop employers from discriminating against disabled people. And for every young person who manages to secure a job with the £2,275 bribes available for employers under the Youth Contract, an older worker will be laid off or stay unemployed.

There may be less people on benefits as a result of Universal Credit as benefit sanctions, already running at around a million a year, look set to soar. But condemning people to destitution doesn’t mean they will find work, it means they will spend time queuing in foodbanks rather than looking for jobs. The social costs of this mass impoverishment of hundreds of thousands of families will remain with us for generations.

Almost all the intended gains of Universal Credit could have been achieved within the existing system of Tax Credits. But instead of working with a functioning, if flawed system, Iain Duncan Smith has decided he knows best and thrown away 50 years of steady development in social security administration – even if few of these developments have been in the interests of claimants.

Instead we’ve got a hugely complex IT system devised by a man who seems to know nothing about computers and which is now being managed by a builder. The new conditionality rules and assumptions about how to get people into work have been based on drivel from Christian think tanks like the Centre for Social Justice – an organisation run by the type of people who think you can cure people of being gay by talking to a non-existent man in the sky. And comedy toff Lord Fraud’s endless crazy schemes to help people in poverty cope with budgeting or direct payments under the new regime all seem to have been quietly abandoned.

Universal Credit is likely to prove devastating for low income people even if the DWP manage to fix the problems outlined in this weeks humiliating rebuke by the National Audit Office. Any attempt at reforming social security based on the nonsensical myth that unemployed people are responsible for unemployment is bound to end in disaster. The millions wasted on the project so far are nothing compared to the billions about to squandered in the name of Iain Duncan Smith’s arrogant and messianic belief that he alone has invented a magical cure for poverty and unemployment. In fact all he has done is make a big mess, and one that will take decades to clean up.

When Labour win in 2015, they will be able to accurately state without argument or comeback: “.look at the mess the last government left us, it’s all their fault….”
I hope I survive long enough to see these vile ConDems receive their dose of Karma.

With respect, I think you should wise up a bit, do a bit of reading. Labour have explicitly said they will carry on with exactly the same welfare ‘reforms’ which the Tories and Lib Dems are currently implementing. Plus, Labour hired Atos. Plus, Labour’s Liam Byrne is fighting for a one year limit on being able to claim any type of Job Seekers Allowance. He’s trying to out-Tory the Tories.
Get the picture?
The problem is not the ‘ConDems’ as you call them.
The problem is all main parties. Slagging off only the Tories will do no good. It implies Labour are at least slightly better. They’re not. And to think they are, maybe even to vote for them, keeps the same system going, while giving the lazy thinking Labour voter a satisfaction that they are fighting the tories, when in fact they are upholding the very system they profess to be against.

Reblogged this on Vox Political and commented:
So Universal Credit is as bad as I’ve always said it is? That’s good to know. Johnny Void pours acid all over Iain Duncan Smith’s latest bid for credibility in his usual profanity-ridden way (I think he’s just run out of patience, same as the rest of us).
“Any attempt at reforming social security based on the nonsensical myth that unemployed people are responsible for unemployment is bound to end in disaster.” Absolutely correct. It’s about time SOMEBODY said it.

i think…… the right wing of the tory party will sheer off an join up with UKIP and what is cleft, will eat the whatever is left of the Liberals, sort of like a mirror image of the SDP in the 80s, which was also the result of a shitty Liberal coalition

Reblogged this on paultmillington and commented:
His does IDS keep getting away with it? I long for the day he is held accountable for his actions. I suppose it will never happen so the next best thing is that at some point he ends up disabled then we will see. In my opinion people like him can dish it but can’t take it. One day IDS you will be held accountable

What is the point of wishing IDS becoming disabled, he is a million scrote several times over, he will Never experience any kind of financial hardship that he is inflicting on the poor, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t have to or need to care as long as he has a god-like power!!!

“Those who are self-employed will face unprecedentedly complex rules, with Dragon’s Den style assessments being planned to make sure their self-employment is viable.”

You can provide them with the same figures that are requested for working out WTC, but as far as business plans or other operational information of your enterprise goes, simply state that that information is Commercially Confidential

The point being, with the new rules you will be assumed to be earning min wage for 35 hours a week…. if you earn less than that, the calculations will be done as if you did earn the 35*min wage… which would mean you don’t get nearly enough top up benefits to make work pay, at which point you would be better off giving up the SE job and going full time unemployed…

Is it just me that’s a little suspicious of this figure of 1000 JSAs now on Ultimate Chaos.
Almost by definition these ppl will be online, having to use Useless Job Mess, checking benefits sites, even here!, etc. Where are they, or even 1 of them?

I am not being funny, but is it me or is it Cameron who is out of touch?

Fourteen hundred people died in a chemical act on foreign shores and no-one is really sure who did it, yet the P.M. wants to dive headlong into a war to right the wrongs of the infidels………….

What does’nt equate, is the DWP, empowered by the coalition government and a weak stance from Labour, have ended many more lives on our own shores.

The culprits are known to us and the “Cull of those showing least resistance”, is in full flow……….
Pardon me for trying to be politically correct, but this, surely, is the most hypocritical fiasco i have ever encountered!!

The DWP carry out murders backed by the cover of legislation and nothing is done, yet Cameron is willing to sacrifice our young soldiers to be butchered in an attack on Syria where the perpetrators are unknown.

To rub salt into the wound, the recipients of life threatening injuries and amputations would end up in front of an ATOS examination, only to be robbed of any disability benefits.

Its a wonder, that the wankers who hide behind the title of “Taxpayers Alliance”, (A JOKE IN ITSELF), have not suggested that our unemployed could be utilised within the theatre of war, under the terms of workfare……………..

I would not piss on our government!!!!

They are so out of touch with the regular, Joe Bloggs, person on the street, they might as well represent Easter Island.
At least they would be at home with the other big headed bastards, carved from rock!!

At the G20 summit, Cameron was forced to defend comments made about us being a tiny island……………

Its about time he realised, we are, just that, insignificant by our size.

Britain is like a midget, pissed up, punch drunk boxer.
Any little skirmish and we jump up shouting “PUT EM UP”

Putin said some true things today;

He said the Russians looked upon our country as an empire when we stood up against the evil of the nazis, along with Russia.
He went on to say Russian attitudes changed when Blair took us into war with Iraq with lies generated by the Yanks, that he sold to our people. We had become Americas poodle………
After this, Russian attitudes changed towards us, no longer were we looked upon as an empire…..

How come all opinion polls show the general public, over seventy percent, do not want to engage in another protracted war, yet our politicians who are supposed to reflect our opinions, do?.

Out of touch, they certainly are……………….

…………and so is Cameron by claiming the British are proud of their heritage and find it a pleasure to reside here……….

“Think again you tossbag”, try asking the victims of your heinous crimes against humanity, what they really think?

You, your cronies and the DWP, would be dangling, lifeless, on a rope thrown over a tree, piss dripping down your legs…………………..

“Its a wonder, that the wankers who hide behind the title of “Taxpayers Alliance”, (A JOKE IN ITSELF), have not suggested that our unemployed could be utilised within the theatre of war, under the terms of workfare……………..”

I’m sure its been discussed – under the control of G4S, zero-hour contracts all round, sanctioned if you get shot…

“protracted war” – we’re not looking at a protracted war – we’re looking at a quick, forensic strike on military targets to take out the regime’s fighting capability🙂 it will all be over and done with in a jiffy🙂 “protracted war” – pfft!

Not only is the ‘Universal Credit’ not universal, more to the point, it is not unconditional. It could never be made to work, even by someone intelligent. It is so sad. The report, ‘Dynamic Benefits’ which explained to IDS that means testing was the problem has been used to justify this mess. Not normally an optimist (I think ecological disaster is just around the corner, which if it is, will make this problem irrelevant), but I have hopes that Jenny Jones, the Green Party’s new Lord, will explain to their Lordships that ‘Dynamic Benefits’ actually points to a truly universal, unconditional payment to everyone – a Citizens’ Basic Income.http://www.clivelord.wordpress.com

i was going to go self employed whats the point for loads of harassment , how will universal credit make work pay is it magical, first you have to find a job, ids your one thick fucker, universal credit will never work,,,,

The same regards self-employment! I also had a job interview at short notice as they were desperate for someone. Unfortunately it was on my signing day and although there was a very good chance that it would result in a job, it was not guaranteed. I therefore didn’t attend for fear of sanctions. I know there is no leeway anymore and certainly no common sense. Of course I didn’t mention this to the Jobcentre. Stupid rules – what can you do other than play their game?

Tax Credits are themselves more than just ‘flawed’. They are ridiculously complicated, subject to error and miscalculation. I always thought it was just a wheeze to get part of the benefits system out of the hands of DWP, so that as part of the tax system TC’s could be gradually whittled away as no longer a ‘right’ like the old, much simpler, income support. They were only introduced because the number of hours/amount of money you could earn on UB/JSA and IS had become so pared back under Thatcher/Major – but rather than simply restoring the ability to work/earn money to these benefits, and the overall value of Income Support, Labour introduced TC’s and a whole new tranche of bureaucracy into the HMRC. They didn’t even do the sensible thing within this, ie make it possible to combine a tax return with a yearly claim for TC’s. And to top it off, the tax threshold has nothing to do with TC levels, so I’ve ended up paying half of my TC’s back in income tax every year since I’ve had a job anyway.

The two Depts also never talked to each other – I didn’t realise I was eligible for CTC as a single mother on income support (because I’d assumed from the publicity that TC’s only went to people who had some kind of paid job) until I was about to come off IS, losing me about seven years of £53 a week. This despite yearly call-ins throughout this time to see if I wanted any ‘help’ to find a job. So about the only aspect of UC I’m not unhappy with is its combination of JSA and TC’s into one benefit, back in the DWP’s remit.

You’re right, though, UC’s main aim is to somehow ‘cure’ unemployment with absurd conditions, and this is what the MS press don’t want to see. If it were really supposed to be simpler, the DLA/PIP element could have been combined within it (and people’s doctors simply believed), other disability/child benefits combined (rather than cut), Council Tax Benefit not hived off to councils, and Discretionary Housing Payments not used up by applications from (some) people with disabilities and families with military who should have simply have had their bedroom tax gap in the housing element restored. If this government weren’t so coked up on their own farts they might have seen their way through to at least a couple sops to rationality.

UC is also based on an outdated version of what a household is – giving by default the man the whole payment including child benefit and tax credits earned by women and the rent. This aspect on its own is a recipe for domestic disaster, and has not had enough attention anywhere, not even here.

In the face of all this, I don’t understand why more aren’t embracing unconditional basic income as an alternative to this morass. Or Citizens Income, or Social Wage, whatever. I can imagine chanting ‘Everyone deserves the means to live’ down Whitehall; I wouldn’t bother if it’s ‘We demand our Tax Credits’, or HB, or DLA, etc. There’s been an entirely defensive fight going on over benefits for the last 30 years or so, and nearly every battle has been lost. Meanwhile the state advances in its machinations to blame poor people for the mess this world is in, get poor people to blame themselves for the state they’re in, and get the not so poor drugged up or hypnotised enough not to notice the state they’re in and what it’s doing to everyone.

The only way I can see to oppose this proliferation of conditions now is to get rid of all of them, barring top-ups for extra physical/mental needs. A mother is already working, carers and people with disabilities have enough to deal with, more and more of us have to look after ourselves alone, a lot of us are spending more and more time informing each other about what is going on, and trying to explore what other possibilities for living there might be. Each individual should be paid enough to live off without reference to some outdated idea of ‘household’, which would also get the state out of our bedrooms. Of course it would have to be combined with rent controls, HB itself was never meant to work without them. And hopefully proper land value, speculation, capital gains taxes to pay. But establishing the right to a basic income for all would be a good start, and even if the levels weren’t high enough to really live off of, it would at least give more people the stability they need to be able to think, plan and what they decide.

Otherwise what do people want to see? Should we roll the clock back to the last government’s changes, or the one before that, or the one before that? Do people think we can go straight from this nightmare to some kind of gift/sharing economy where money isn’t needed? As much as I’d like to see that, how?

Excellent Johnny. Personally, I can’t see UC happening. Call it wishful thinking on my part, but I think it will clunk along until 2015 when the incoming Labour govt* will consign it to the great dustbin of failed major IT projects.

Universal Credit will never go nationwide. Its fucked big time by stupid IDS and right fruitbats.
I met his SPAD one Phillipa Stroud at a Christian Coference before the last election……one nasty posh Tory worshipping her hero IDS.

“…what a wonderful idea Universal Credit is in theory…” What’s seductive about UC (or the poll tax or flat rate income tax or child support or one-size-fits-all education) is that it *is* a good idea in theory – but only if you overlook the enormous variation in human beings and their circumstances.

“HOW LONG CAN THE CHAINS ON THE CREAKING GATES OF THE DWP’s CEMETERY OF SHAME, HOLD OUT?”

It seems as though most of the British public are asking the same question.
Every freedom of information site connected to the DWP, are awash with the same question, how many have died as a result of the ill conceived welfare reforms?…………………

The real answer would stagger anybody. This is the reason the DWP are reluctant to publish the “KNOWN” figures.

Controlling the media is easy when you hold the power, suppressing the truth is another matter. Whatever they try to withhold has a way of leaking out.

Friends at their department update me regularly on the discontent within their ranks and the bullying afforded to them.

Strangely, the once cast iron cauldron of the goverments nasty arm is starting to resemble a colander full of holes……..
Wherever they place their fingers to stop the truth leaking out, it finds another channel.

Daily they are bombarded with freedom of information requests. They give out replies but the public are no fools, finding time after time, they have been lied to. Answers they gave on one request, contradict that given on another……..

You have to have a good memory to be a good liar!!!

Foolishly, they employ more than a handful of employees to answer requests. Each employee is out of touch with what their colleagues have posted, therefore gaping errors are being seized upon, to their regret………………

I hope you have all requested the information that the DWP hold on you.

It costs nothing but it costs them time and money to collate it all. Why not put in a request today?

My information was seven inches deep and contained all my medical history. The same history that they request from you at an ESA, but is already in their domain.

The chains are starting to stretch on the gates of the DWP’s cemetery of shame, the question of the day will be, “Who will take the wrap?”

Will it be the man at the top, Duncan Smith, the evil witch, Mcvey, or will it be put firmly on the shoulders of Gunnyeon, the medical chief of the DWP, “THE ANGEL OF DEATH”, who sold his soul and the lives of thousands to the greed of the private health insurers………………………….

Lobbying has it’s perks, but the needs of the hangmans halter have to be met………..

Who will fall first? Only time well tell.

THE BLAME GAME IS YET TO START, BUT WHEN IT DOES, WHO WILL BE CARRYING THE PROVERBIAL CAN?

Narcissists never reveal the truth Geoff. We will never get the truth. How many have died at the DWP?????? DWP could now stand for Death, Worry, Penalizations (not Pensions). We will not get the truth and the general public will never get the news. Lying comes natural to these people.

Anyone in an “ordinary job” would have been sacked by now if they’d made so many cockups as this government has. Employers wouldn’t put up with such incompetence time after time. All its done is cause so much stress and even death to so many people who are just trying to make ends meet. So why are we allowing this to happen?? Shamefull.

I could well be getting made redundant from my second job since the credit crunch (and a year on the dole) even if I don’t lose my job I claim working tax credits to top it up, does this mean I will need to report my wage to DWP every month? – It is full time (seriously I am asking – worried haha).

ANYWAY – God the last time the Tories had control of the economy and it was shit at least a person could could claim a little top or JSA without the minefield of bullshit that seems to be ahead.

They CUT CUT CUT and do not nothing to stimulate the jobs market, well paid jobs or a living wage then do THIS. Bunch of BASTARDS. Need a slap the lot😀.

IDS has not been incompetent. He’s just lying about what the government’s intentions are. These reforms are not about making the system better. They are not even about taking money away from the unemployed.

These reforms are the latest in a succession of attempts by all three main parties, stretching back to 1993, to make it clear to working people that they will not be able to rely on the state benefit system in a crisis. Which is what you get when you hand over the responsibility of researching and devising benefits policy to the country’s largest provider of unemployment insurance.

The key message that needs to reach the British people is that we are almost all victims of this large scale fraud. The sick, disabled and unemployed may be driven to starvation and suicide, but the objective of these policies is to fleece the working people of the UK in order to produce a huge profit for UNUM. Of course no money will be saved. Of course no jobs will be created. Because when it comes down to it UNUM and poverty pimps like A4E donate large sums to the political parties and the rest of us don’t.

Yes Eric Jarvis
Unum Provident behind the DWP is a big problem. These are well known cowboys in the USA. People of this country are unaware what is going on. It is terrible IDS and UNUM are doing the dealings now. Its not at good match is it.

Universal Credit will NEVER be digital by default because from a systems analytic viewpoint it is impossible to codify rapid changes in millions of human lives in a way that can be fairly or efficiently handled by any computer programme. Whoever tries to do it – whatever permutation or combination of hardware, software, programming languages, and developmental methodologies are used – I guarantee that the project will fail in the future as comprehensively as it has failed in the past.

It can’t be done.

What is more likely is application for multiple benefits in one go coupled with a ridiculous amount of unpolicable and unenforceable conditionality.

If George Galloway is successful with his documentary about Tory Blairs war crimes,and eventualy he is held to account ,and imprisoned,as he deserves. Then there could be hope that this government will suffer the same fate, and do not pass go.

Geoff
Well done for putting your stuff up there for scrutiny. I have had my incapacity stolen too. Many of us have, in fact I am now thinking all of us have. The lies will drive you mad, the double binding no win situations. We all have to stay calm in some way, I am still trying to find a way for this. I am sure they want us to all have stress, and heart attacks etc. This is why we must stay calm, to save our lives. We are dealing with people who are fraudsters, Unum Provident behind DWP. These people have no conscience which is why they make loads of money from their fraud. They do not care who pegs it, We do our research and keep ourselves safe by sharing research and knowledge.

Why is the DWP taking over housing benefits? because if they sanction your jsa or other benefits they can include housing benefit in that, therefore making you homeless as well as destitute – they are evil bastards, no other word for it.

IDS you fuckin wank fail! thes e cunts fuckin pissin everyone of hated by all the british people. them wankers givina way millions in aid an taxpayer fuckin hates it. they are dying to kick there asses out first oportunity believes you me!!! GIVE YOUR OWN FUCKIN MONEY YOU FAT GREDY TWATS YOU GOT ENUFF OF IT!

If any one does get seriously hurt in these job centres, they sadly know what is on the menu for them don’t they, Atos and no dla or esa. Soon I think job centre staff will start looking for other jobs that are probably a lot safer, If people are already hurting themselves in the job centre, being driven to madness and despair. Your right it will not be long before some one who has lost the plot will turn nasty. Jesus if I was well enough, I would not work there, not in a million years!!!! They must be worried now. Ids is playing with peoples lives here.

Imagine the type of people who would step into those empty jobs … if they are given any idea of the true picture/what they’re to be expected to do on a regular basis. Perhaps we are in the last decade where there are any half-way reasonable ‘advisers’ – I think I’ve encountered one or perhaps even 3 in the past year – & one of those has ‘disappeared’ (left/been moved?). They know they have to ‘up their game’ (become nastier) or be marked down/given their marching orders sooner or later. The more ‘human’/humane-seeming ones seem to be able to be in the ‘softer’ roles – perhaps ‘simply’ doing signing on (of people who are on the WP) or maybe have been their long enough to be able to exercise some level of judgement and jump in to sanction anyone that moves. The longest serving advisers are almost certainly hoping that things won’t deteriorate too much further before they can take their pension & run …

‘Liberal Democrat’ Sarah Teather (after speaking out in print against the Benefit C(r)ap earlier, and the mayhem it would cause in her constituency & others) has just resigned. So one less person to raise concerns and refuse to accept the unjust policies being brought in – now categorised by Ming Campbell as “faint hearted” for not wishing to (continue being asked to) vote for things she finds deeply unpleasant/unjust. She was one of the ‘good’/Michael Meacher-type guys … also recently spoke at a committee in defence of asylum seekers being left with tiny amounts to live on while their cases are waiting to be heard, & the conditions they’re expected to live within (food vouchers & etc.). Ms Teather put the case (against this) really well & was in a position to at least try to influence some of the worst of the current wrong-doing(s) – and now her conscience means she’s stood down.

You can probably find the latest UJ Toolkit on the “whatdotheyknow” website if you do a search. BTW they(DWP) change the contents of the UJ Toolkit every ten minutes anyway. It may be worth requesting the latest version. Not sure about it being printable.

Very accurate analysis. Except… Don’t make the mistake that because the new man appointed to manage the project doesn’t know anything about IT he is doomed to fail. They don’t want him to write code. Nor do they want him to interpret benefit rules. He has to manage a complex, almost certainly impossible political project with a high profile, a massive budget and many dimensions. The skills to do that have nothing to do with IT or benefits. I don’t know if the bloke they have chosen has the necessary skills. But apparently knocking his capabilities because of a construction background is a foolish argument. When he fails it will almost certainly be because of the incompetence of politicians.

BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS – JOBSEEKER COMPLAINTS
ID Smith has to go before the committee soon – arm them with as much information as possible.
REFER ALL YOUR COMPLAINTS TO Email: workpencom@parliament.uk

universal credit written in java programming language in fact one can prove that by checking the treasury procurement list that has ‘oracle’ the owners of java on the payroll…..in fact oracles job is to patch the glitches not fix them..

“Universal Credit is a new benefit for people of working age. It replaces the current range of
means-tested benefits for people out of work, the system of tax credits for people in low paid
employment, and Housing Benefit for people of working age. It will be implemented across the
UK from October 2013.
Some elements of Universal Credit are specific to claimants in self-employment, including a
requirement for self-employed claimants who are expected to look for and be available for work:
to attend one or more gateway interviews; to provide evidence of self-employment; the use of an
assumed income, the Minimum Income Floor, in calculating some awards of Universal Credit; and
exemptions from some conditions of entitlement during a start-up period of 12 months from the
start of a new claim. There will also be a regime of monthly self-reporting of income and outgoings.
This study set out to learn how current experiences of claiming tax credits might inform the
continuing development of Universal Credit policy, the extent to which the information requirements
placed on claimants are likely to be feasible, and how the distinctive features of Universal Credit
(particularly the Minimum Income Floor) might affect people’s circumstances and employment
decisions.
The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 45 self-employed recipients of tax credits in three
areas of the UK in August and September 2012.
Working as self-employed – people’s occupations, activities and
trajectories of self-employment
Respondents often spoke about their self-employed activity as an important component of the way
they lived their lives, cared for their families and sought quality of life. At the same time, people
talked about disadvantages and concerns, including low earnings, long hours of work, hard working
conditions and financial insecurity.
People in the study had entered self-employment for a range of reasons. As well as people with
entrepreneurial ideas, the study included people who find self-employment allows them to fit
in caring responsibilities or manage health conditions. It also includes people for whom selfemployment provides the most accessible form of employment, such as people in occupations
predominantly organised on a self-employed basis and people who have been unable to secure
paid work.
Amongst couples and a small number of the lone parents it was not unusual for people to have
more than one self-employed job, or to combine self-employment with employee earnings. People
with similar levels of earnings could be at very different stages in their careers. Some people on low
earnings were at the start of their career, building up their businesses, whilst others had been in
business for a long period of time and were seeing once successful businesses decline.
Patterns of self-employed working, income and outgoings
When asked what their self-employed work involved, people often did not think across all the
activities that went towards their work and for some people it was hard to make clear separation
of work and non-work activities. ”

“im Bligh of the CBI said: ‘These figures show a significant improvement in the performance of the Work Programme, which has helped over a hundred thousand long-term unemployed people into sustained employment.
‘Performance in supporting the hardest to help jobseekers needs to improve, but these people have significant barriers to work which take time to address.”

as he reclined in his cosy armchair smoking a cigar and sipping champagne, others overheard him to add ”as if i give a fuck”…

Officials were “unable to explain” the reasoning behind the timescales or their feasibility
There were no “adequate measures” of progress
Computer systems lack the function to identify potentially fraudulent claims, relying instead on manual checks
£34m investment in IT systems was written off
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) lacked IT expertise and senior leadership
Delays to the rollout would reduce the expected benefits of reform
Expenditure on IT systems has accounted for more than 70% of the £425m spent to date but the report suggested officials did not yet know whether the infrastructure in place would support a national rollout.

Continue reading the main story
Analysis

image of Chris Mason
Chris Mason
Political correspondent
It was the language of a minister on the defensive.

A report from an organisation, without a political axe to grind, has ripped into his flagship project and so a round of broadcast interviews beckoned for Iain Duncan Smith.

Here is how a few of his sentences began:

“I fully accept that the problem was…”

The Department has “wrestled with issues and difficulties.”

“What went wrong with the Universal Credit team…”

Then followed a similar set of hostile questions from MPs in the Commons, and then the inevitable question to the prime minister’s Official Spokesman from reporters about whether Downing Street has full confidence in the scheme and the minister.

The answer was yes, but the question reveals what is at stake.

Universal credit is a reform so big it has been a passion for Mr Duncan Smith for a decade.

It’s a reform so major it would be arguably the biggest shake-up of the welfare state since it was set up.

And so it’s a reform so big that if it was to fail it would leave not just Mr Duncan Smith, but the government as a whole, in a real mess.

While steps were taken at the end of 2012 to get to grips with some of the problems, the watchdog said the “underlying issues” had not been addressed.

Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office, said the “relatively high risk trajectory” was met by “weak management, ineffective control and poor governance”.

The BBC has learned that the overspend on the the governments flagship welfare reform programme could rise further, as £162m has been invested on new hardware and software, in addition to the £34m on IT systems.

But Mr Duncan Smith told the BBC: “This will be delivered within budget and within the timescale.”

this twat this atos funded disabled ‘person’ who openly dicredits other disabled people really get on my nerves this simon stevens’ git this is him doing the disinfo routine..

“The next urban myth is one I find deeply frustrating because it is the whole basis of the victimhood culture that has engulfed disabled people. The myth is that the welfare reforms and the discussions surrounding them has caused a rise in the ‘hate crime’ towards disabled people. This is really hard to unpick as its is based on so many misunderstandings and prejudices. It is clear to me it is not the Government nor the right wing media that ensures the language of benefit scroungers has been kept in the public minds but those who claim to be campaigning on behalf of disabled people, because it suits their agenda of victimhood and tries to close the debate of welfare reforms with emotive guilt tripping.

While hate crime does of course exists, I do not think it is as widespread as many wish us to believe. I have tried without success to get to the bottom of individuals’ claims that they been victims of hate crime. While people want us to believe faultless disabled people are being openly abused in the high street and other public places by complete strangers, I think the reality that this is more about anti-social behaviour in the traditional places where the offenders will pick on the first thing they see, in this case disability, and that some ‘victims’ have chip on their shoulders believing they can be rude to others without consequences. I also feel the hate crime mentality provides unhelpful attention to bullies, glorifying their actions.”

ok how about people killing themselves because certain people went on at them claiming they were fakers and scroungers and it drove them over the edge to the degree they took their own life..

“Reasons given where people said reporting income would be difficult included a limited command
of English, a lack of experience using computers, and financial records not being sufficiently well organised.
Many people said monthly reporting would create additional demands upon their time and some
would need to make adjustments to the way they handled their self-employed finances. People with
highly variable patterns of income and outgoings saw monthly reporting as potentially very time consuming.
The seven day reporting period was generally thought to be feasible but many respondents
identified a range of circumstances when the deadline might be missed and there was concern that
claimants might be penalised in such circumstances. There was a widespread suggestion that there
should be some flexibility around the seven-day target.
Despite the various concerns expressed by some respondents no-one suggested that they might
close down their self-employed business as a result of any new demands on them created by the
Universal Credit information requirements.”

Anyone checked out the guardian? A lot of lone parents /pregnant mums face being moved from their newham hostels up to 200 miles away?? Newham rewritten it’s policy to prioritize working families n ex service ppl. Like the parents kids ain’t nxt generation of workers. ! This government is sick….

[with thanks to Tony Collins and Campaign for Change for permission to repost] Capita’s share price has fallen to a new 10-year low today (8 December 2016) after chief executive Andy Parker warned that “near-term headwinds” would hit trading performance in the first half of 2017. The company’s share price of 513p at lunchtime today was 9%… Continue Reading C […]

Devastation writes, SERIOUSLY BAD NEWS Sharp readers will remember the plan announced in 2015 to shrink the “estate” of the DWP by 20% over the next few years. Well, here are some examples of this move in Glasgow – where a whopping HALF of all Jobcentres will close!!!!!! This is devastating news, because thousands of […]

Report by CJ6.30PM-8.30PM Monday 21st Nov 2016 Unite Housing Workers and Social Housing Residents meeting. Only 6 people including CJ and Tim B. Discussed problems with social housing providers for workers and tenants, so in both our interests to get together. Another meeting pencilled in for 30thJan 2017. Nice coffees and luxury biscuits.Noon-1.15pm Weds 23 […]

Today, Netpol supporters received our November 2016 newsletter in their email in-boxes. It is now also available online here. If you would like to receive future email updates, sign up to Netpol’s ‘announcements’ list here. We would also like to ask for your help: if you think the work we undertake is important and worth … The post Read our November 2016 new […]